The start dates for a range of new WHS clauses have been postponed in Western Australia, while a Bill providing presumptive compensation to certain workers with PTSD has been reintroduced in South Australia.
Three employers have been fined a total of nearly $1.5 million over an explosion and a structural collapse, including one company that failed to ensure customers transported dangerous goods in a safe manner, and a business that failed to properly instruct personnel on an unfamiliar work procedure.
A crane supplier that was fined for safety breaches at a site, where one of its workers was killed, has failed to convince a superior court it had little control over the relevant activities. But the court ordered a retrial, finding a key matter was overlooked by all parties.
Two companies, including one that failed to implement a mandatory rescue plan for excavation work, have been fined a total of $720,000, plus $35,000 in costs, in relation to the drowning of a worker in a trench.
An employer that allowed an unlicensed teenage worker to operate a forklift, and then failed to inform a safety regulator that seven of the worker's fingers had been amputated, has been handed a high-level safety penalty.
The High Court has rejected an employer's bid for special leave to challenge a ruling that it is not entitled to recover, from its insurer, any damages and compensation paid to an injured worker because of its safety record.
